Biography
offers an excellent way to study the history
of scientific thought in its historical context.
We will survey the history of science through
the lives of some of its most influential
practitioners: e.g. Einstein, Lavoisier, Pavlov,
and McClintock. Drawing on a combination of
biographical materials—monographs, films,
and websites--and “primary” scientific publications,
we will explore the development of scientific
ideas in their social, cultural, and political
context. This course will address the novelty
of scientific creativity in a number of medical
sciences from the 17th to 20th century.

At the heart of this course are the contributions
each physician made to their respective medical
fields. Since these phsycians defined themselves
by the research they conducted and the ideas
they introduced, we will study their work.
The ultimate aim for the course will be to
understand these developments as part of their
lives—e.g. their upbringing, social standing,
political commitments, education, and perhaps
their "dark sides."

Biographies
are written for a broad range of purposes
and come in a wide variety of styles. Course
participants will read or view psychological,
hagiographic, scientific, and feminist treatments
of major personalities in the history of science.
They will engage this literature and film
as a historical exercise in their study of
the role of personality in intellectual creativity.

This course will meet twice per week. I will
lecture on Tuesday and if needed for the first
part of Thursday, devoting the remaining time
for discussion of the assigned readings and
films.

Grades
will be determined as follows:
Class Participation--1/3
Research Projects--1/3
Final Exam--1/3.

Part
One
The Eighteenth Century

Section
One: Medicine during the Scientific Revolution
and the Enlightenment Period

Mon.,
July 1 Course Introduction -- “Lives in Medicine.”

Biography
offers a rich perspective through which to
investigate the history of medicine in the
complexity of its cultural, social, political,
and intellectual aspects.

Reading 1: Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit
to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity
from Antiquity to Present (London: HarperCollins,
1997), Chapter IX “The New Science,” pp. 201-250
(To the end of the first paragraph).

Reading
1: Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind,
Chapter X “Enlightenment,”, pp. 251 (Beginning
at the top of the first full paragraph)-303.

Reading
2: Leonard G. Wilson, “Edward Jenner,” DSB,
pp. 95-97.

Reading
3: Edward Jenner, An Inquiry into the Causes
and Effects of the Variolae Vaccin, a Disease
Discovered in Some of the Western Counties
of England, Particularly Gloucestershire,
and Known by the Name of the Cow Pox (London:
Hurst, 1801), 3d ed., pp. iii-42.

Reading
3: François Magendie, “Discourse on
the Study of Physiology” and “Some General
Ideas on the Phenomena Peculiar to Living
Bodies,” the appendixes for William Randall
Albury, “Experiment and Explanation in the
Physiology of Bichat and Magendie,” in Studies
in the History of Biology, No. 1, 1977, pp.
97-115.

Reading
2: Elizabeth Blackwell, Medicine as a Profession
for Women (New York: Printed for the Trustees
of the New York infirmary for women, 1860),
pp. 1-24. (Another short reading is to be
added later, also.)

Reading
3: William H. Welch, “Sanitation in Relation
to the Poor [1892],” in Papers and Addresses
(Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press,
1920), Vol. 1, pp. 588-598; “The Relation
of Sewage Disposal to Public Health [1897],”
Idem., pp. 607-614; “Relations of Laboratories
to Public Health [1899],” Idem., pp. 615-620;
Duties of a Hospital to the Public Health
[1915], Idem., pp. 621-628; “Some of the Advantages
of the Union of Medical School and University
[1888],” Idem., Vol. 3, pp. 26-40.

View
in class: Reminiscences of the Early Days
of the Medical School, an Oral History of
William H. Welch, 1932. Running time 12 mins.

Reading
2: Vivien T. Thomas, Pioneering Research in
Surgical Shock and Cardiovascular Surgery:
Vivien Thomas and his Work with Alfred Blalock:
An Autobiography (Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press, 1985), pp. 80-129.